


hast thou considered the tetrapod

by loonylu



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Angry Peter, Child Abuse, Custody Battle, Flashbacks, Guns, Heist, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, M/M, Past Abuse, Past Character Death, Police, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Violence, crime crew!, pre resolution jupeter, the jupeter angst is at the end yall, unbeta'd we die like men, written after s3e1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-24
Updated: 2019-10-24
Packaged: 2021-01-02 02:54:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21154397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loonylu/pseuds/loonylu
Summary: They’re few and far between, but Juno occasionally works cases that involve kids.(five times juno deals with kids in bad situations, and one time he doesn’t have to deal with it alone.)





	hast thou considered the tetrapod

***

one (_i am young and i am good_)

***

It’s only a few months after Benten dies.

Juno is nearly twenty. His mother is in prison. The academy – a place that had felt good and right in a way that he doesn’t ever remember feeling before – is over. Juno feels like everything that has ever tethered him to the surface of Mars has been stripped away, leaving him to float into space.

(He visits Ben’s grave every day. Sometimes he feels like Ben’s body is the only thing keeping his feet on the ground, like a magnet pulling them together even in death.)

(Juno is fairly morbid these days.)

So Juno does what his classmates do – and that’s what made the academy so easy for him, there’s no one to protect, he’s just a single grain of sand in a whole desert and he loves feeling completely and utterly unimportant – and applies for entry-level positions. He does not apply for any Oldtown precincts.

He is hired in a process he will never remember correctly. Looking back, he will only remember the dark flash of Captain Hijikata’s eyes, Falco’s raised eyebrows, and Rita’s sticky fingers. It does not feel as safe as the academy, but Juno is nothing if not contrary and decides blending in isn’t for him.

Now, a scant seven months after Benzaiten Steel was laid to rest, Juno is standing outside of a locked door with his blaster drawn.

(Like Juno and Sarah combined. A locked door. A blaster. Two shaking hands.)

Falco stands beside him. An angry voice. Something crashing. Juno shuts his eyes for one tense moment. No one is opening the door, but someone is inside the apartment.

“Look at this fucking mess, you little idiot,” a voice rings out from farther back into the apartment. Juno’s heart lurches.

Falco kicks open the door with a single, swift movement that sends a shiver down Juno’s spine. A corner of Juno’s mind considers fucking them, just to make his own life more complicated. It’s not the time to think about that, he tells himself firmly as they quietly move into the apartment.

The apartment is cramped, the sink is piled high with dirty dishes. Flies buzz around the living room. A child lives here – there are toys on the rug, a sippy cup on top of the dish pile. Juno tries very hard to refocus himself on catching the drug dealer they’re looking for.

(Juno does not think of carefully washing two sippy cups, standing on a box to reach the sink.)

  
Falco, who is apparently the professional here, signals Juno to check the kitchen. Juno steps out of Falco’s line of sight, sweeps the kitchen with sharp eyes. Notices the white powder on the table, the baggies and the little scale. This is definitely the drug dealer they’re after.

(Juno does not consider swiping a few of the baggies, keeping them tucked in his pocket until he gets home tonight.)

Juno steps towards the table but hears a crunching sound under his right foot. He looks down, sees an Andromeda figurine in pieces beneath his boot. He hears a gasp, and Juno tightens his grip. Juno’s knuckles pale against the plastic of the blaster. Someone is in the kitchen with him.

A creaking, under the sink. Juno’s got good eyes. He sees movement in the cracks between the cabinets. Someone is hiding in there.

Juno’s not stupid. He’s not. But he wants so badly for the child that lives here not to be in the apartment right now, while their parent is being arrested, dragged out of here in handcuffs. While the child is left to fend for themself in the system.

He can hear Falco opening doors in the back of the apartment. No sign of another person yet. So Juno has time.

Juno bends down, opens the cabinet door. A small child – no more than five or six – huddles, flinches back at the sight of Juno’s face. With sinking familiarity Juno recognizes finger-shaped bruises on a tiny arm.

“I won’t hurt you,” Juno says quietly. The kid looks at him warily. Juno thinks he wouldn’t have believed him either, not at that age.

Falco yells, glass shatters. A voice, but Juno can’t tell what they’re saying. Juno hears three shots ring out. “Stay here,” he says to the kid, who nods and shuts his eyes tight as Juno follows the sound of struggle.

Later that night, Juno is at the bottom of a drink when he feels Falco’s hand on his back. “You did good today, rookie,” Falco says jovially, sliding onto the bar stool next to him.

Juno just nods.

“Nobody likes working cases with kids involved,” Falco says cautiously. “But we did a good thing for that kid today. The medical team said they found substantial evidence of maltreatment.”

“You can just say bruises,” Juno says sullenly.

“Bruises, then. So the kid won’t have to go back home, and we took a major dealer off the streets. Hyperion’s safer, and the kid is safer.” Falco signals for another round. “So why so glum?”

Juno just shakes his head. “It’s not like a couple of bruises will keep the kid away from his dad. Soon as he gets out of prison for the drugs, it’s the same thing all over again. It’s not bad enough. The system will give him back to his fucking father until someone gets killed.”

“Not bad enough? The kid had handprint bruises! Good lord, Juno,” Falco scoffs. They often use old-Earth phrases like that. Juno finds it annoying and a bit endearing.

(When he was nine, he showed a teacher a handprint bruise on his neck. Mr. Alvarez told him he’d still have to live with his mom even if he was telling the truth, that kids didn’t get taken away for a couple of bruises.)

“Oh,” Juno says.

***

two (_held under these smothering waves_)

***

“Poor kid,” Diamond says one afternoon, pointing across the street. Juno pays for their coffees and turns around.

Juno is twenty-three and his hobbies include chainsmoking and trying to please the people around him. He’s self-absorbed enough – self-aware enough? – to know that people will leave given half an excuse. So he tries as hard as he can not to give them an excuse.

“Yeah,” he says aimlessly before he sees what Diamond is pointing out.

A kid – clearly just a teenager – is sitting huddled on the sidewalk, cup out in front of them. The kid raises their head and meets Juno’s eyes for a split second.

(Juno remembers.)

“We better go,” Juno says in a voice he hopes is normal.

“Wait, we gotta talk to this kid, get them some help or something – we can’t let them stay out on the streets like this.” Diamond has a viselike grip on Juno’s bicep and Juno doesn’t want to spill the coffee so he hurries with them.

“Wait, babe,” Juno forces out. Diamond stops, looking annoyed. “Just – the kid might be safest there, y’know?”

“Out here? You know how dangerous it can be at night. You’re a goddamn cop, Juno – isn’t this your job?”

“Off duty,” Juno mutters, but Diamond is already in the crosswalk.

“Hey,” Diamond says eagerly as soon as the kid is in earshot, Juno half-jogging to keep up. “Are you okay?”

“Who the fuck are you,” the kid says fiercely. “Fuck off.”

Juno hopes that’s the end of it, but the universe isn’t usually on his side.

(Juno thinks he probably would have said something similar, a few years ago.)

“Nah, kid, we just want to help,” Diamond says, kneeling down. Juno hovers behind them.

“You a cop?” the kid asks Juno suspiciously. Juno spots the kid surreptitiously shoving his belongings into his ratty backpack. He’s getting ready to run.

“Yeah,” Juno says, looking them in the eye. Giving them an out.

“Look, kid, can we call – “ Diamond begins, but the kid is long gone, ducking and weaving into the crowds.

“Juno, you idiot,” Diamond groans. “You spooked them.”

“I – I’m sorry, babe, I just – “

“You always do this, Juno,” Diamond says regretfully, turning away.

Juno bites his tongue.

Later that night, when they are in bed, Juno tries to bring it up.

“Babe?” Juno whispers.

“What is it, Juno? I have work in the morning,” Diamond says sleepily.

“I know, I just – I wanted you to know I used to be like that kid. My mom kicked me out a couple of times, wouldn’t let me back in for weeks. That’s why I was, y’know, weird today. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before.”

“That’s fine, Juno, but that doesn’t mean that kid didn’t need help. You could have called social services. There’d be an investigation. A caseworker. I wasn’t gonna send them back somewhere they didn’t feel safe,” Diamond says with an edge of irritation. “Really, Juno, I’m not in social work school for nothing. This is literally going to be my job.”

“You’re right, I’m sorry,” Juno murmurs.

“Go to sleep, babe,” Diamond says, pulling him closer.

Juno doesn’t sleep.

(He didn’t sleep then, either. Juno kept his eyes open and counted the things that could be taken away from him.)

***

three (_you blaze down the hall and you scream_)

***

He thinks about not taking the case. But it’s only the second week of Juno Steel Investigations and Rita just set up the phone line and he feels bad about Rita’s life savings spent on his garbage life.

(He wonders, absently, what will Rita’s final straw will be. What will finally push her out of his life.)

So when Rita puts Mx. Valeria’s call through, Juno picks up.

“My daughter is missing,” they say. “Please, help me. She – I think – my ex-wife just lost custody and she’s poisoned our daughter against me. She has to be with my _fucking_ ex-wife.”

(Later, Juno will realize a missing child should be reported to the HCPD, not directly to a private investigator. In future years, future cases, he only takes missing persons cases when the police fail to find them, or when there’s a good reason not to go to the police.)

“Slow down,” Juno says, sitting up straighter at his desk. “How long has your daughter been missing?”

“I dropped her off at school this morning and she didn’t come home,” Mx. Valeria sobs. “She’s only eleven, she’s not old enough to realize her mother isn’t able to care for her.”

“Okay,” Juno says, shrugging on his coat. “Do you think she’s in immediate danger?”

“Her mother is just such a fucking bitch, she tried to take everything in the damn divorce when I did everything for our family, and now - “ It doesn’t end, not for a while, and Juno feels oddly detached. The words swim over him, and he tries to tell himself that parents are usually not a danger to their children, that this is in all likelihood a custodial kidnapping or even a runaway situation. Mx. Valeria wouldn’t hurt their kid, he tells himself sternly. Chances are the ex-wife won’t either.

Juno ignores the sick feeling in his stomach as Mx. Valeria continues to rail against her ex-wife Sonia. The girl’s name is Elisa, and Juno drives to Koyode Middle School with a sinking feeling. Juno’s about to step out of the car, try to question underpaid school secretaries and teachers with too many kids to keep track of, when his comms beeps.

“Boss, we got a ping on Sonia and Elisa,” Rita says. “Oohh it’s so fun to say that! Just like in the stream – “

Juno cuts her off. “What do you mean, a ping?”

“Well, I hacked into the security cameras at the Hyperion spaceport, and two people matchin’ the photos you gave me just showed up and bought tickets to Neptune! They’ll be on the flight in an hour according to the flight manifest. I think they both dyed their hair and they sure ain’t dressed for Neptune, at least not as I hear, it’s s’posed to be real cold – “

“It’s definitely them?” Juno turns his car back on. If he can intercept them before their interstellar hauler takes off…

“Yeah, boss, facial recognition ain’t too difficult these days, especially with my improvements –“

“Get me Valeria on the phone!” Juno shouts.

“All right, all right, hold your horses!” Rita transfers the call.

“Juno? What’s going on?” they say urgently. “Did you – “

“Found ‘em,” Juno says grimly. “They’re in the spaceport, they have tickets for a flight – I should be able to intercept them. I’ll call you when - ”

“I’m going to fucking kill her,” Mx. Valeria spits, and Juno’s blood runs cold. Juno hears Valeria’s car starting.

(Juno flashes back to Benzaiten’s blood on the floor. She’s going to do something really bad someday, he remembers telling Ben. It should have been me.)

Juno ends the call, Mx. Valeria in mid-curse. He’s still driving, but he feels so far removed from himself he may as well be floating.

He dials Rita. “I need you to rebook their tickets. Send them somewhere right now. Valeria is on their way and both of them need to be out of there before Valeria gets there. Call them and tell them they have to go somewhere else right the hell now.”

“But boss, I thought – “

“Now, Rita!”

Juno’s heart is in his throat, but he trusts Rita. The mother and daughter go to Jupiter instead, and Rita confirms they get on the flight. That night, Juno has Rita send an email to Mx. Valeria detailing the fact that he does not do offworld cases. He also has Rita block their number.

He drinks a bottle of whiskey and passes out on his desk. Rita finds him in the morning for the first but certainly not the last time.

(He knows with a sick certainty that this is not the end of his downward spiral.)

***

four (_so i think about that and then i sorta black out_)

***

“I’m serious, Macrory.” Juno is thirty-two and in withdrawal for the third time. He rubs his temples to try to dissipate the pain building in his head.

“Yeah, serious as the lead pipe we got for you back at the station. This kid has a rap sheet a mile long. There’s no reason for me to believe a damn thing you or the little rat says.”

The line goes dead.

Juno’s office is currently occupied by a surly teenager who’s a bit worse for wear. His arms are crossed, and he’s scowling at Juno through a mop of dark hair. Rita is making him hot chocolate. He’s nearly an adult, taller than Juno, but –

“Let me get this straight,” Juno says tiredly. “Your dad threw you out because you didn’t want to go into the family business?” He pours himself a drink. Today has been awful and his shoulder hurts. “The family business being the Triad.”

“More or less,” the kid says. He looks like he’s going to say something else, and then he cuts himself off.

Juno presses on. “And since then, the Triad has been trying to pick you off for betraying them or whatever, which is why I found you and several armed goons in that alleyway.”

(He saw that the person the Triad was after was a child – younger than Ben was - and he thought he was going to throw up.)

The kid nods. “Thanks for that.”

“You said you’re what, sixteen? And what’s your name again?” Juno says, reaching the end of his patience.

“Leon.”

“Great,” Juno says gruffly. “Leon. Got family I can drop you off with that isn’t trying to shoot you? An offworld cousin?”

“I got friends in Valles Marineris,” the kid offers sullenly.

“Well, could you stay with them?” Juno asks, exasperated.

(Juno always slept on the floor by Mick’s bed.)

“Yeah, probably,” Leon admits. “I’d need to call them.”

“Call,” Juno says, and the kid pulls out his comms.

Juno turns away, opens his desk drawer. Palms three painkillers and washes them down with whiskey. He stalks out of the office and trusts that Rita will work out the details.

(He wants to tell the kid to run away and never stop.)

***

five (_i__ vanish into the dark_)

***

Juno doesn’t have time for this, not with O’Flaherty needing him to keep an eye on things. The girl – a teenager, but barely – sits in his office, having been ushered in by Rita. Not for the first time, Juno curses Rita’s case-choosing abilities.

“My brother is missing,” the girl says steadily, meeting his eye.

Eyes, he reminds himself as the THEIA scans the girl for weapons. According to the database, she’s a ninth grader at Oldtown High. Nora Ko, fourteen, on probation for shoplifting. The information runs through his brain like water from a faucet.

“Why can’t you go to the HCPD?” Juno says tonelessly, taking a gulp of coffee that is mostly whiskey at this point in the day. He’s thirty-eight and he knows he still drinks too much.

“There are things I don’t want them knowing,” the girl says.

“Like what?” Juno asks, crossing his arms. He’s not falling for another case like Valeria. “How old are you, anyway?”

“None of your business,” the kid says, crossing her arms.

And Juno recognizes that avoidance. He looks at her – not with the THEIA, organically, can’t get too reliant on tech, Steel – and notices her patched clothes, her glare, her half-glances over her shoulder to make sure the door is unblocked. Juno recognizes the Oldtown street kid in front of him with a sick jolt.

“Tell me about your brother, kid,” Juno says roughly.

“He’s eight,” Nora says, voice tight. “Adrian. Last saw him at home. In Oldtown. He didn’t come home from school yesterday when he was supposed to, and I – I haven’t been able to find him.”

“Parents?” Juno asks, almost casually. He doesn’t think she buys it, but she takes a deep breath. Juno can tell where this is going. The parent probably isn’t dead, he predicts, but too drugged out to be any help.

“Not really, no,” she says, looking him dead in the eye. “That a problem?”

“I mean, bigger picture? Yeah,” Juno deadpans, turning away to grab a notebook sitting on the windowsill. “In terms of your case, no. I’ll try to find your brother, and we don’t have to involve the HCPD. Or anyone else.” 

(Juno thinks of all the times Mick’s dad called child protective services. All the times he lied to social workers. All the times he said clumsy, I’m clumsy, Ma is going grocery shopping tomorrow, I promise.)

“Thank you,” Nora says quietly.

Juno feels sick.

(Juno remembers the sewers and the rabbits and pulling himself together in the dark and damp under Oldtown. Remembers stepping in front of Ben every time until he didn’t.)

***

six (_one of these days, I’m gonna wriggle up on dry land_)

***

As the cargo bay of the Carte Blanche closes around them like a mouth, Juno lets out a breath and rubs a hand over his face. “Good driving, Ransom,” he offers tentatively. “We made it.”

“Quite,” Peter replies, throwing open the door to the Ruby Seven. Without a backwards glance, Peter has stalked away into the belly of the ship, leaving Juno alone.

Juno swallows down the despair he feels, steps out of the car, and turns to unload the fuel cells waiting on the cargo pod into the waiting racks. He is stopped, rudely, by a gun in his face.

Juno is forty, and this has never happened to him before. A young child is standing in front of him, blaster gripped in shaking fingers. The kid’s hair and eyes are dark, and his clothes are ripped and dirty. He’s shivering, shaking all over, and he has a black eye. The barrel of the gun is nearly pressed to Juno’s chin.

(Juno remembers that shaking. He remembers the first time he held a blaster. The first time he made four perfect shots in a row in an Oldtown alley.)

“Hands up,” the kid growls. He can’t be more than twelve or thirteen.

Juno puts his hands up. Buddy had shown him the surveillance system his first day aboard – someone would notice in minutes. Not for the first time, Juno appreciates having a team.

“You hid with the fuel cells?” Juno says quietly. The trick right now is to not spook him.

(He remembers how long it took for him to stop jumping at little noises, stop flinching when someone touched him.)

“Shut up,” the kid says. “You’re m-my hostage now.”

“Yep,” Juno agrees easily. “Name’s Juno Steel.”

“I don’t care,” the kid grits out.

“Well, that isn’t very polite,” Juno mutters.

“I need a ride,” the kid says, eyes flashing.

(I need a ride, Ben said to Mick when Juno was too injured to walk to the emergency room. Juno remembers the sound of the hovercycle revving its engine.)

“Where to?” Juno says casually. 

“I have to get off Ganymede, they’re coming for me,” the kid whispers, shaking more violently.

“Who’s coming for you?” Juno asks with a note of concern.

“I – no one!”

“Uh-huh.”

“Shut up!” The blaster is shoved closer to Juno’s face.

“You could just ask for a ride, kid, there’s no need to take a hostage,” Juno says evenly.

“I’m – I’m not – I –“

“Who blacked your eye? That’s quite the shiner,” Juno asks, keeping his tone light.

“None of your business,” the kid says roughly, but his voice wavers. “Why would you care?”

“I’ve had plenty, but that one’s impressive,” Juno quips. “Just wondering who’s got it out for you. Family? Gangs? Kids at school?”

“I – “ the kid starts, and Juno cuts him off.

“No!” he shouts to Peter, who has pulled a knife from his thigh holster, quietly approaching Juno’s captor from behind. “He’s a kid, goddamnit.”

This causes the kid to twist around to try to spot Peter, giving Juno an opening to spin his blaster up from his own thigh holster and stun the kid. He falls without a sound.

A few hours later, the kid is in the medbay with Vespa, Rita is still fiddling with the fracking company’s security systems to erase footage of the crew, Jet is unloading fuel cells in the cargo bay, and Buddy has ordered Juno and Peter to the kitchen. Buddy made tea. Juno crosses his arms over his chest and doesn’t look at Peter.

“Vespa was able to talk to our stowaway briefly,” Buddy says, breaking the silence. “We’ll drop him off at Io – apparently he’s got family in the Jupiter area. He’s got some injuries she’s treating, but he’s in no danger. Apparently his name is Lee.”

Juno feels inexplicable anger bubble up in him. “Any news on who gave him a black eye?” Juno asks, standing up to pace.

“No,” Buddy says. “Why so upset, darling? He did threaten to shoot you.”

“He’s a kid,” Juno snarls.

“Even so – “ Buddy continues, but Peter cuts her off.

“I mean no disrespect, Captain, but would you be amenable to changing topics?” Peter’s voice is strained. His eyes flick towards Juno’s, and Juno understands Peter is trying to protect him.

(Juno remembers saying _my brother wasn’t so lucky._ Remembers Rex’s eyes widening and settling into sadness.)

“Cases with kids are… hard for me,” Juno says with finality, dragging the words out, looking at the floor. “I need to be sure the kid is safe, okay?”

“I see,” Buddy says after a moment. “Our young friend is in safe hands now, and he’s assured me his aunt on Io is perfectly willing to care for him. I would never put him in a situation where I knew he would be further hurt.”

“Good,” Juno says, and he means it. He turns on his heel, anger still thrumming through him. “And you, Ransom – “

“I’m sorry, Juno,” Peter says, edge of something deep and painful in his voice. “I thought you were in danger and acted accordingly. I – I didn’t evaluate the whole situation. Before, well.”

The revelation that Peter came to save him, without question or hesitation even now, washes through Juno like a wave. “It’s okay,” he croaks. “It’s okay, Peter. We’ll keep a better eye out for stowaways next time.”

**Author's Note:**

> SO MAN IN GLASS HUH
> 
> as always: healingsteel.tumblr.com
> 
> section titles from "hast thou considered the tetrapod" by the mountain goats because the mountain goats are excellent and their songs are pure juno energy and i'm right


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